Monday, June 09, 2014

Ordinarily, if a union leader makes such a public statement akin to an employer's agent rather than a worker representative, there would have been reactions from the members - even maybe the call of an extra-ordinary general meeting calling for a 'non-confidence' motion...

Cuepacs president Azih Muda, according to the Bernama report, in my opinion behaved like an agent of the employer, the government, and was reported
taking the stance that civil servants who involved themselves in the
peaceful assembly protesting the Good and Services Tax(GST) 'could be
considered as traitors and do not deserve to be called civil servants'

"I have stated before that civil servants must not get involved in any
gathering against the government as they had taken the oath... so
whether they like it or not, they must abide by the rules....If they are dissatisfied and wish to take part in such a gathering, they should leave the public sector..." - Cuepacs president Azih Muda

Has he surrendered the right of employees of the government of their
freedom of expression, opinion and freedom of assembly? Has employees of
the government lost their rights as citizens - the right to have their
say in a democracy? [If the government itself, be it the Prime Minister
or some Minister or the Chief Secretary of the government said this, it would have been alright - but
not a person who is seen to represent workers in the public sector?]
Did he say this to get into the good books of the Prime Minister who
was present in the function? NOTE also that maybe the reporters may have got it wrong, and the Cuepacs President may have wrongly been understood...????

CUEPACS is a labour centre whose members are public sector employee unions. The employer of these employees is the government. Is there protest occurring within CUEPACS over the statement issued by its president Azih Muda? We do not know. The Malaysian Trade Union Congress(MTUC), the labour centre repreenting 300 over unions, and who is recognized by Malaysia and even the International Labour Organisation(ILO) as the representative of workers in Malaysia sadly have kept quite...No statements in the media (which may not have carried such statements or reported it) ...and when we look at the MTUC website, we also see no response...

A worker is required only to perform the work for which he/she has been employed efficiently. Employers have no right to try and control the worker's beliefs, values, opinions, political affiliations, actions and other basic rights - more so when these rights are claimed and exercised outside working hours. Can a government employee campaign for 'FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS? Can a government employee call for LYNAS to be expelled from Malaysia? Can they campaign for an end of detention without trial law, death in custody, etc...? Can they be involved in the campaign for the implementation of hudud or against it? Can they campaign for the abolition of GST? Can they call on the government to not sign the TPPA? ...YES, yes, yes.... a worker is a human being...and he has human rights... and employers have no total control of a worker in Malaysia especially with what he/she does outside working hours. Remember a worker is not a SLAVE...

In a democracy like Malaysia, people have the right to support or not support certain proposals, laws and policies - and people who work for the government do not 'surrender away' these rights just because they are working for the government.

Now, as the CUEPACS President, he should have been calling the Prime Minister and the government to respect the human and citizen rights of workers in the public sector - he should have been attacking the use of threats of transfer or termination against workers in the public sector who exercise these rights outside their working hours.

He should have stressed that as employees of the government, they will do the work they are employed for professionally and as required, without bringing in their own 'politics' and other beliefs during working hours.

He should have stressed that CUEPACS is happy that this Malaysian government employs workers irrespective of political affiliations, beliefs and opinions - so much so that come General Elections, workers in the public sector can freely vote for whoever they feel is best. He should have stressed that as citizens, public sector workers must also be free to oppose proposed or even existing government policies, practices and laws - and that aspects of the existing "Akujanji" and/or Service Pledge that goes contrary to this principle must now be amended or even repealed.

As CUEPACS President, he should have criticized the usage of threats of transfer, etc directly against workers in the public sector who exercised their rights as citizens outside working hours as these are contrary to the principles of democracy. Likewise, promotions should also just be based on work skills/ability - never on any other factors like whether he is a union leader or not, political affiliations, religion, ethnicity, other involvements in the exercising of rights outside work...

But alas, Azih Muda is a NEW Cuepacs president, maybe also awed by the occasion which was attended by the PM - he may learn to be a better advocate for worker rights ... [We never got hold of the full text of his speech or a record of all that was said to the media - for after all, media can also be guilty of just picking this and not that...to report.] I do hope that Azih Muda would come out and clarify whether what was stated in the Bernama report, carried by NST and Malaysian Insider was accurate or not ...I do hope that what was reported was wrong...

Interestingly, the employer(the government or the PM) did not come and warn workers about their 'service pledge', or call them 'traitors' or even ask them to resign as public sector employees in the said media reports.... so it was just the CUEPACS leader that saw this as an issue ...not even PM Najib Razak

Union fights for workers, and should never become or be seen as employer's agents

Below the relevant reports, and some responses that appeared in the media

Government
staff involved in the protest rally against the Goods and Services Tax
(GST) at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur today could be considered as
traitors and do not deserve to be called civil servants.

Cuepacs president Azih Muda (pic) said civil servants involved in the
gathering had violated the "Akujanji" and Service Pledge that they had
made.

"I have stated before that civil servants must not get involved in any
gathering against the government as they had taken the oath... so
whether they like it or not, they must abide by the rules.

"If they are dissatisfied and wish to take part in such a gathering, they should leave the public sector.
"We aim to make Malaysia a developed nation but such protest gatherings
can derail the plan," he told reporters after the Civil Servants
Workers Day celebration at Dewan Wawasan in Jitra today.

It was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Azih said action could be taken against civil servants found to have taken part in today's anti-GST gathering.

"They must not say they are victimised if disciplinary action is taken
against them. It's their own fault if they join the protest gathering as
I had issued an earlier statement for civil servants not to get
involved.

"The prime minister has always opened doors for Cuepacs to voice our
needs and woes and there have been solutions to help us cope with rising
costs and to see what more needs to be done in the public sector. So
there is no need to participate in the protest gathering."

JITRA: As Cuepacs president Azih Muda spoke
of possible action against civil servants involved in the anti-Goods and
Services Tax (GST) rally at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur today, a
former senior government servant lambasted him for making such a threat.

To Azih's statement that they could be considered traitors to the
government and do not deserve to be called civil servants, former
Transport Ministry secretary- general Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam said only
the Public Service Department (PSD) has the authority to do so.

Navaratnam said any action against the protesters would be wrong as it is their constitutional right to do so.

Speaking to reporters after the Civil Servants Workers' Day
celebration at Dewan Wawasan, here, today, Azih said civil servants
involved in the gathering had violated the "Akujanji" and Service Pledge
that they had made.

"I have stated before that civil servants must not get involved in
any gathering against the government as they had taken the oaths...so
whether they like it or not, they must abide by the rules. If they are
dissatisfied and wish to take part in such a gathering, they should
leave the public sector.

"We aim to make Malaysia a developed nation but such protest gatherings can derail the plan," Bernama quoted him as saying.

"The prime minister has always opened doors for Cuepacs to voice our
needs and woes, and there have been solutions to help us cope with
rising costs and to see what more needs to be done in the public sector.
"

Navaratnam said Azih had seemingly assumed a strong political stance
in the issue, which he felt was unbefitting of a civil servant who is
duty bound to maintain a professionally neutral stance.

He said civil servants have every right to participate in a legitimate and lawful assembly that conforms to their principles.

"As Malaysian citizens, they have a right to adhere to their
principles and exert their human rights; if they feel like attending an
assembly that is legal, they should," he said.

Meanwhile, former Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam)
commissioner Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam agreed that it was civil
servants' basic human right to participate in an assembly.

AS a founder member of Cuepacs and having held the
post of secretary-general, I am shocked at the outburst of the Cuepacs
president that the civil servants who took part in the Anti-GST Rally
are traitors. He is talking like a government politician.

I wish to reiterate here that as government servants we have to
execute our duties and implement accepted policies of the government to
the best of our ability.

However, it does not preclude our inherent right to object or protest
against any government policies we consider detrimental to our
interest.

The GST will be detrimental to wage earners particularly the middle
and lower-income groups be it government servants or private sector
employees.

This group is already suffering as a result of increases in the cost
of living. The government has raised the price of petrol and electricity
tariff which in turn has increased the cost of essential goods.

The Cuepacs president is duty-bound to support and protect his
members and fight for their rights. Instead, he is condemning his own
members.

Cuepacs should have been in the forefront together with other workers organisations to protest against the GST.

To members of Cuepacs, my request is do your duty as an honest and
responsible government servant but do not be afraid to stand up and
fight when your livelihood is affected.

The chief secretary to the government should spend his valuable time
to put a stop to billions of ringgit of taxpayers money being lost by
negligent civil servants as stated in the Auditor-General's Report
rather than making threats and suppressing the legitimate rights of
civil servants to protest against the GST.

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